Facebook's bold new publishing deal has the potential to disrupt an entire industry

On Wednesday morning, Facebook rolled
out its long-rumored deal that lets content publishers like
NBC News and The New York Times post their articles directly to
Facebook's iOS app.

This is a major deal for publishing and could completely change
the game and disrupt the media industry as we know it.

There are has several benefits for all the parties involved,
including readers.

Here are some of them:

Readers win because they don't need to leave Facebook just to
read these articles; these Instant Articles should load much
faster as a result. That makes for a better experience.

Publishers win because Facebook gives them 100% of
the revenue from ads that appear inside these "Facebook Instant"
articles — the only time this changes is if Facebook sells the
ads through its Audience Network mobile ad network, in which it
keeps 30% of the revenue and gives 70% to the publisher.

Another benefit to publishers: According
to TechCrunch, Facebook will share all the
necessary analytics so all audiences are accounted for and no
numbers are lost in the shuffle. Publishers can also use the
Facebook Audience Network to extend Facebook campaigns outside
of Facebook if they want to sell any leftover ads.

Facebook wins because this solidifies the social network
as a go-to place for news. If Facebook Instant Articles reach
more readers than a typical article shared on Facebook,
publishers have a big reason to work with Facebook and use its
mobile ad network. And if more publishers work with Facebook,
it will become extremely relevant to an even broader
demographic — those people who scour the web for all sorts of
information, not just the stuff posted by their friends.

This is what a Facebook
Instant Article looks like.Facebook

You might be wondering, "Why does Facebook want to be a news
site?" The answer is simple: Facebook is, and has always been,
about sharing. Offering the news gives people something to talk
about and to share with others.

Twitter is the go-to social network for
news right now. Facebook, it seems, would like to rip that mantle
away.

That's why Facebook has been aping some of the most popular
aspects of Twitter, a popular social site that's exceedingly good
at broadcasting the news: Facebook introduced
Twitter-like hashtags in 2013, and
added Twitter-like trending topics last January. (It
also
debuted Paper, a personalized news feed that takes
into account what your friends are liking and posting, last
year.)

Right now, Twitter is the go-to
social network for news. Facebook, it seems, would like to rip
that mantle away. This new service is a big first step.

With this in mind, Facebook Instant Articles shouldn't surprise
anybody. It's experimental, but if it's successful it could have
broad implications on the future of news publishing. In time,
these content partnerships could make Facebook the best place to
get all news, not just personal news, regardless of the source.

That would make Facebook the de facto place for all kinds of
information: personal news, local news, and global news. But
right now, it simply positions Facebook to better compete with
Twitter, which,
despite its growth issues, is still the best place on the web
to get real-time information.